How Interreligious Dialogue Can Expand and Challenge Your Faith – Judith Pajo

Episode 96.   

Have you lived in more than one country? Do you participate in interreligious dialogue or are you interested in it? Have you studied religion or theology? Not very many people can say yes to all of these questions. But my guest, Judith Pajo can. Born in Germany, she has nevertheless lived many years both there and in the U.S., shuttling back and forth since childhood. Raised Catholic, she has also studied theology and cultural anthropology in both countries. Judith now conducts interreligious research at Pace University in New York. With these elements as our focus, Judith and I explored her peripatetic upbringing, her current scholarship on interreligious and intra-religious dialogue, and the impact of that exploration on her Catholic faith. 

While this conversation was recorded weeks ago, the recent death of Pope Francis makes it particularly timely. 

Highlights: 

• Diverse experiences of Catholicism.
• The impact of mobility on religious experience.
• Sound and light over words and other distractions. 
• Language diversity in Catholic practice.
• Impact of October 7th attack on interfaith dialogue.
• Researcher risks and faith struggles.
• How interfaith dialogue reshapes religions.
• Research outcomes and future directions.

Bio:  

Judith Pajo, PhD, grew up in both Germany and the United States. She studied Catholic theology and cultural anthropology on both sides of the Atlantic and has been teaching at Pace University in New York City for over fifteen years, with shorter stints at NYU and Fordham. Her new research on interfaith dialogue among Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Europe and North America, conceived a little over a year ago, is transforming her Catholic faith as she integrates more elements from the other Abrahamic religions into her practice. She is also guiding undergraduate students in conducting interviews with individuals from diverse faith traditions. The research group itself is an interfaith initiative; no two members share the same faith, but they are discovering that they have much in common. She is currently working on an article about cultural transgressions in interfaith work. What does forgiveness look like in practice? How do we continue interfaith dialogue? Judith lives in Queens, NY. 

References:

• Church of the Reconciliation, Berlin
• Second Vatican Council

Suggested episode on Living Our Beliefs:

• Mookie Manalili episode – Catholic life

Social Media and other links for Judith:  

• Profile at Pace University 
• LinkedIn – Judith Pajo

Transcript on Buzzsprout

Social Media and other links for Méli:

• Website – the Talking with God Project
• Meli’s email
• LinkedIn – Meli Solomon
• Facebook – Meli Solomon

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The Living Our Beliefs podcast is part of the Talking with God Project.